This blog functions like an exhaust valve to bring out my cluttered and sometimes confused thoughts. Please give your comments so that we can make this more useful, with wider perspectives. You may find my micro-blogs on Twitter @jay_ambadi.

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Why Fall in Love when you can walk into it?

I have never fallen in love!

In my childhood, I always dreamt that it would be a love marriage for
me-that too an inter-religious one (having fed on an over doze of national
integration!). But as I grew, I never
found that person to fall in love and ended up loving the one whom I got
married to.

The closest I got to falling in love lasted only for about 15 minutes.
It was during a visit to Nainital that I found this girl, who was in our own group,
very attractive on account of her beauty, intelligence and soulful singing. She became close to me and we were mostly together
during the long walks. But as soon as I
started weaving my dreams around her, a very close friend of mine informed me
that he has ‘fallen in love’ with her.
He wanted to marry her and sought my opinion on the suggestion. I didn’t want to break his budding love by
bringing in my own feelings. So, I decided to ‘sacrifice’ my yet unsure feelings
for my friend and extended full support to him.

It is another matter that my friend, after pursuing that girl for some days, gave it up. But I hadmoved on by then and there was no question of
going back into falling in love again! I
had already realised that what I felt for the girl was not love but only a consideration
of the possibility that she, with all her perceived positive qualities, would
be a good companion to me.

I mentioned the above incident here only to demonstrate that I do not have
the relevant experience for speaking on behalf of those who have fallen in love
either at first sight or even in subsequent sights. So, they will simply have to excuse me for
demystifying a wonderful thing as love and the value of self-mortification associated
with it!

Love at first sight is even more baffling for me. At first sight, isn’t
one only seeing a body? Is it merely a love for the body? Anyway, we won’t go
into that aspect of love as that is beyond the scope of this post.

The word ‘Falling’ has a connotation of involuntariness attached to it.
It sounds more like an accident forced by external factors, beyond one’s
control. It is not a conscious decision.

Any act performed without due consideration of all relevant factors can result in either
of these two outcomes- if one is really lucky, it could turn out to be a
wonderful thing or if one is unlucky, it could become a nightmare. There is no reliable statistics as to what results
in majority of 'falling in love' incidences. According to one’s perception on
love, one tends to say that they are all failures or they are the panacea. But
truth definitely must be somewhere in between!

I can foresee my readers arguing about the failures in even arranged
marriages. I agree. But the purpose of this post is not to compare
love vs. arranged marriages. It is only to
analyse the advisability of falling in love vs. walking into love!

Even if the outcome of falling in love is 50:50, should a rational
being take such chances? More so, in a
society that still values the institution of marriage and expects the love to result
in marriage? The stakes are so very
high in a marriage. The happiness or
otherwise of one’s life depends on the success of marriage, to a great extent. Even if we accept that it is becoming easier
to separate from unpleasant marriages, no one really cherish the fallout of
such separations either on the individuals or on the family including children.

That brings up the question- why fall in love at all? When you feel
attracted to a person, why not sit back and consider all the relevant points
and arrive at a rational decision? If your decision is to make that person a
part of your life, in whichever form, walk into it consciously, by all
means. The chance of a more rational
decision is much higher in such ‘walking into love’.

If your love meets what is good for your life in its entirety, you will
still end up in love. Only difference would be that it is a conscious act and
you have possibly eliminated all the pitfalls associated with it. If these factors do not match, then you would
agree that even if the love is strongest and sweet at that moment, it will sour
as time goes by! In all likelihood
you will blame yourself for having ‘fallen’ into a trap!

After walking into a relationship, even if it fails- at least you will
have the consolation that you did your best, yet failed. You will not blame
yourself for acting in such a hasty manner and taking an irrational decision!

Mindfulness

This ‘falling in’ vs. ‘walking into’ is not limited to love alone. If I
ask you, through which nostril you breathed in last, in all probability, you
would admit that you were not aware. That
is only natural. Most of our bodily
actions or reactions are not controlled by our conscious mind that is aware, but
the subconscious one with no awareness.

Subconscious mind takes actions, or reacts to external stimuli, based on
the perceptions, prejudices and judgements (whatever name we may use) that are accumulated
in it, on the basis of past experiences.
It is not rational. It does not consider all the aspects of a given
choice. It just reacts out of habit.

These automatic actions by sub-conscious mind, in regular bodily activities,
are a boon. Think about the hassles that
we would have to go through if we are to consciously activate our heart or
lungs all the time. Most likely we will forget
or mis-time these vital functions sometime and end up being dead! Also, it helps in emergency situations where
conscious mind would not have the time to arrive at rational decisions and
therefore our body will have to necessarily act as per the immediate reflexes.

However, our inherent laziness makes us surrender all our affairs to the
subconscious mind. Not just regular internal
bodily activities but also our reactions to the external world are left to the
unconscious mind to tackle with. For
example, the moment we hear a word that is recognised by the subconscious mind as
an abuse, directed at us, immediately we react with hurt, anger and what
not. If we only let our conscious mind
to perceive the word, the intention of the person hurling that at us and the consequences
of our potential reactions to that, in all probability we will just smile at
that abuser and walk away thereby denying him the pleasure of having hurt us. Even if we decide that the abuse calls for a
more stringent reaction so that it is not repeated, it would be a rational and
conscious decision after considering the consequences.

Same is the situation with most of our interactions with outside world.
By letting our subconscious mind to
decide our reactions we are most likely to take irrational decisions. According
to Sri Buddha (who prescribed Vipasana form of meditation to gain control over our
desires and aversion (raga and dvesha) by developing an attitude of equanimity
towards all sensations that our mind perceives), by training our conscious mind
to take charge of our reactions to external stimuli, we can control our lives
in a much better fashion!

By developing the skill of what is called ‘mindfulness’ in all our
actions and reactions, we become better human beings and better decision makers.
We are no more slaves of our subconscious mind and its irrationalities. We are saved from our ‘blindness’ and
prejudices.

Let us all be aware of our own body, our own mind and our own
surroundings. Let us learn to consciously analyse these and arrive at rational decisions.
Let us not Fall into anything, whether love or murderous rage. Let us walk into
all our actions with our eyes and ears wide open.

Let us be mindful of our own life!
That is the only way we can ensure a better life and better society!

PS: The concepts discussed above
are based on my limited understanding and logic. I don’t claim any expertise in any of the
matters discussed above. Readers are advised to arrive at their own judgement. I
would really appreciate if contrary views are added to this post in the form of
comments.

7 comments:

Agree with you fully that By taking .. arriving on decisions regarding various aspects of our Lives by weighing it with all pros and cons instead of mindlessly deciding on a spur of moment.. we can avoid many terrible irrational conclusion which may mar our future course of life..But then does it happen any time?We become a victim of our emotions..We decide in a hurry be it a case of LOVE or Enemity or Personal Problems..We just arrive at decisions based on implicit assumptions, perception sets; long-held beliefs, ego involvement..

Especially in matters of LOVE..ppl react to each other without paying much thought about future..yes everyone just falls in love..Who has the time and conscious state of mind to sit and think about future..for the moment everything appears to be too rosy to think much..Persons falling in love are too carried away by the emotions of attractions..they fail to notice anything else which would ultimately steal or kill the romantic air in between the lovers..so why think much when falling in LOVE ? Eventually it may or may not work out in future but then it may happen even if we as you say..Walk into LOVE..Who knows what holds for the lovers in future ? So truly speaking In Love One always prefers to fall to get the feel of LOVE..Walking into it err..will it be a romantic Love then ?

Good one – but can’t agree with consciously walking into LOVE…. Can that be LOVE? LOVE isn't LOVE when it is conscious. Mindfulness could have been made into a new post…. Different subject but linked….

I smiled indulgently reading thru this post:))))) Mr Ambadi writing on love?:)) And then it all fell in place with "mindfulness":))

Only if we cld all be such rational beings!:)) Life (in my humble opinion) - wld be very boring- if all decisions were about balance, harmony and mindfullness. Perhaps its also the phase of life one is in, currently, that dictates actions?:))

Yes one must be conscious at all times, but often we ignore the conscious- not that we dont apply it, it is more fun ignoring it- living on the edge- having the thrill...so to speak:))

Gimme a life of spontaneity anyday- bcos to my mind that is more purer, not motivated or hurtful. Living by design? TO some extent we all do...just that we are equally rational and emotional ppl na:))

I never heard of anyone else using the term "walking into love" until this. Years ago I used the same term when I walked into love with all my wits about me. Yes it is possible - if the person is a 'thinker'. If they aren't, well, they won't even comprehend. Good article!

I think this is a great post and personally believe that 'walking into love' is only an option for emotionally evolved people. Most of society lives the 'I need you to complete me' romantic ideal, which in my opinion is a flawed concept. When you have done deep work on yourself and become whole, you want to love without need. When you have reached this place within, it is entirely possible and indeed preferable to 'walk into love' as opposed to fall in love.

I was married for a decade, and have a child. I separated because my partner was too destructive, yet I was able to work on myself throughout and upon leaving felt a massive relief and rapidly found myself to be pretty soughted.

Within a few months I started to date a very beautiful woman, who is an incredible match for me. However my priorities are my daughter, my work, my friends and my health and then my partner. Yes, I am slowly allowing myself to walk into love, with my eyes wide open, but the love I now choose for myself is not an all consuming partnership, rather a shared enhancement of life alog side other loves.